It is becoming increasingly commonplace to incorporate a trusted computing base (TCB) in computing devices to provide a trusted processing environment in which to execute a task routine. Many TCBs are implemented using a microcontroller or other form of relatively low power processor component and storage that are both separate and distinct from a main processor component and main storage that provide the main processing environment for executing an operating system and/or applications software. The trusted processing environment provided by a TCB is often largely isolated from the operating system and/or applications software to prevent tampering of task routines executed within the TCB by malicious software (e.g., so-called “viruses” or “worms”) that may be executed within the main processing environment.
The task routines may perform various security functions, including and not limited to, access control, authentication, and integrity verification. The storage associate with a TCB is often used to store one or more forms of security credentials, such as digital signatures, encryption/decryption keys, hash values, seeds for pseudo-random number generators, white lists and/or black lists of persons and/or other computing devices, etc.